Mark Wahlberg's Boston dream tough guy project The Fighter has finally found its footing. Jilted since Matt Damon, then Brad Pitt, then Darren Aronofsky dropped out, the film has landed on Christian Bale as costar and David O. Russell as director. The movie, about Boston boxing half-brothers Mickey Ward and Dicky Eklund, will begin production in July. Way to go, Wahlby. [Variety]

Screenwriter Jenny Bicks is one busy broad. After slogging through years of Sex and the City she was stationed on Men in Trees, then wrote the Ellen DeGeneres comedy Mother Nature, is doing a rewrite of pilot Washingtonienne, and has now landed a gig writing the pilot for an HBO project called Modern Love, which, yes is based on the New York Times feature. It's Bicks' first time writing a male lead, so wish her luck! Or, don't. Whichever. [Variety]

Here's America: more people watched the Lifetime Movie Network feature Natalee Holloway—about the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba all those years ago and was most likely sold into white slavery—than have ever watched the net in its 11 year history. 3.2 million people, to be exact. Because everyone can relate to having their high school student daughter snatched or murdered or stolen off into the sea while she's on a chaperoned vacation. Either that, or people are just horrible creatures who point and coo at car accidents and search YouTube for footage of plane crashes and homicide investigations. So, congratulations LMN. You've found your stride. Can't wait for the Molly Bish movie. [Variety]

Just when you thought you'd finally seen the last of her, the Starter Grace may be back on your TV screens, shuffle dancing and mugging for your mild delight. Debra Messing may see her new single-camera comedy series picked up by NBC. Seems like a long time ago that Ned and Stacey got canceled, doesn't it? [THR]

Hm, there may be hope for bloodthirsty voyeuristic America yet. Oprah Winfrey has pulled a Columbine-themed episode of her show, saying it focused too much on the perpetrators of the school massacre, rather than their victims. So, that's regular decent of her I guess. Sucks, though, for Dave Cullen, who wrote a new book called Columbine that is apparently quite good, that he plugged on the never-to-air episode. That's like having a million dollars snatched right out of your hand. [THR]

Jena Malone has joined the cast of Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch!, as has the increasingly-busy Jamie from The Real World: San Diego. Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone are, unfortunately, out. [THR]

Photo via Bauer-Griffin

Jump-cut proficient director Tony Scott has signed on to helm Unstoppable, a thriller about a runaway train that's full of dangerous radioactive goop. The engineer (Denzel? Will?) and the conductor (Dakota Fanning?) find themselves in a "race against time" to stop the goop from gooping out all over everybody. Everyone else is villains. [Variety] On-set freakout proficient director David O. Russell has signed up for The Silver Linings Playbook, based on the novel about a sadsack high school teacher who goes to live with his mom after being released from the nut house. [Variety]

Kathy Bates has joined Sandra Bullock in a drama called The Blind Side, about a hobo who learns to play football. And, to love. [Variety] Emma Stone, a future tabloid queen who we want to have a beer with will star in Easy A for Screen Gems. The comedy is about a high school student who, while reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's book-of-the-movie based on Demi Moore's The Scarlet Letter, decides to pretend she's the school slut so she'll be popular. How one only pretends to be a loose woman is unclear to us. [Variety]

Matthew McConaughey (introduced hilariously by Variety as "Fool's Gold thesp") has signed on to be maybe a little serious for once in his goddamned, sun-poisoned life. He'll play the lead in the legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, about an attorney made of logs. Or something. [Variety] In other encouraging movie news, presumed blockbusters like Transformers 3 and The Avengers are securing release dates even though nothing has been signed off on them, nor do they even have scripts. So. Good. [Variety]

Bet there's a money-fight going on right now at Dunder Mifflin. NBC has secured lucrative syndication deals for The Office in all 50 top markets across the US. The comedy will air on Fox affiliates this fall. [THR] ABC has cut its 13-episode order of freshman sitcom In the Motherhood to just 6 for this season. The show premiered last Thursday to low-ish (6.7 million) ratings. [Variety]

You won't have to drive over to the Ruby Tuesday's to watch fat people dating each other anymore. No, Fox is developing a reality dating show called More to Love. Fox alternative programming prez Mike Darnell says of the show, in a statement sure to haunt him in the afterlife: "For six years it's been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and that's not what the dating world looks like. Why don't real women — the women who watch these shows, for the most part — have a chance to find love too?" It's true, America. Our real, fat, Bachelor-watching citizenry needs fake, sad reality show love too. Me, I'm just hoping this opens the door for Fat Real World and Fat Housewives of Fat City USA Population: You. [THR]

Meanwhile Survivor guru Mark Burnett is joining ABC in an unholy alliance to produce Shark Tank, an adaptation of a British reality show that is itself an adaptation of a Japanese reality show about rich tycoons giving struggling entrepreneurs money. In this economy! [THR]

After the jump: Which new dad is going to wish they never even heard the name David O. Russell in a matter of months?

· ABC won the night with the Three Hours of Country Music Industry Auto-Fellation You'll Never Get Back Again Awards. [Variety]
· Matthew McConaughey's life is about to be made a living hell by director David O. Russell in The Grackle, about a "barroom fighter in New Orleans who hires himself out for $250 to settle disputes." He then dispatches a couple of walleyed Malibu surfers to beat the shit out of the warring parties. [Variety]

But that's not the forward-thinking part — anyone can sign on for a quarter of nothing; it's getting the green light that's hard. Which, shockingly, is where a misanthropic old friend of Defamer enters with one for the kids:

Simon & Schuster plans to test-drive the new deal with a middle-grade book series by the filmmaker David O. Russell, scheduled for publication in the fall of 2009. ...

With a co-writer, Craig DiGregorio, Mr. Russell has written several drafts of a script for an Alienated film, which could be produced in tandem with the book series. The story is centered on two children who work for “an old tabloid that covers the world of freaks and aliens,” he said.

“I always liked the idea of playing with the idea of transformation and alien nature and freak nature,” Mr. Russell said. “I just want it to be really fun and really funny and be really original. I think that’s the hardest thing to do.”

Himself the father of a 14-year-old son, Russell and Alienated no doubt yield extraordinary franchise potential — both as a tentpole dazzler and a true viral sensation in the Russell tradition, featuring more of the stroppy auteur's off-camera admonitions to his young talent that "I'm just trying to fucking help you! I worked on this thing for for three fucking years and I'm not gonna have some middle-grade cunt start crying about alien nature! Figure it out yourself! And you! Asshole! Too much ham! What are you, a fucking Lunchables?" And at least the unions can likely relax about payroll this time around. If this isn't a win-win, we don't know what is.

• To Reach Children, Publisher Tries Films [NYT]

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Actress Jessica Biel was given a very boisterous welcome home in Santa Monica on Tuesday afternoon. The former 7th Heaven star recently returned to California after production was shut down again on the David O. Russell film Nailed. Biel was trailed down the street by a man who was trailing her while mumbling something about having any fries to go with that shake. Biel said, "Once is never okay, but did he have to follow me down the street?" Biel then hid out at a near by jewelry store until the cat caller finally left.

[Photo Credit: X17]

• DAVID O. RUSSELL FILM SHUT DOWN 4TH TIME [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

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Once again, actress Jessica Biel appeared to be lost and despondent after arriving at LAX on Tuesday afternoon. While not as shell shocked as the last time we saw her, Biel wondered if she would be able to function out of in a Los Angeles without David O. Russell engaging in existential conversations and asking if she could float the producers a loan to keep the film going for a few more weeks. In addition, it was overheard that Biel had been struggling with coming up a great fake response when long time boyfriend Justin Timberlake asked for her opinion on his new movie The Love Guru. Biel said, "He seems so happy about it and I don't ruin it by saying something stupid. "

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

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After a delightful shopping trip with gal pal Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal ran the course of emotions while walking from the passenger side of his SUV to the driver's side. At the start of the phone call, production on the problem plagued Nailed was back on and Gyllenhaal was due back on set by Tuesday. Then a moment later, he received another call, this time from director David O. Russell explaining that the film was shut down again, then Russell and Gyllenhaal were conferenced together onto a call with one of the producers who said that film was back on, then the trio was put on another conference call with the financiers who said that the movie was shut down again, explaining that all of the money for the film had been lost in a bet on the Celtics/Cavs series. You see, the financiers thought that LeBron James was going to turn it around. It was at this point when the previously silent Gyllenhaal opened the door and explained that he's going to be on vacation for a little while longer.

[Photo Credit: Flynet]

ThinkFilm is known to owe substantial amounts to media outlets, among others. Sources say the company was going to announce an acquisition from Senator Entertainment this week but then canceled its press meetings. ...

Though the company saw an $18 million worldwide gross from Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, further problems emerged Thursday when ThinkFilm execs suddenly discovered there was no money for Friday newspaper ads for Then She Found Me. The following day, SAG pulled the plug on Nailed, telling members not to work due to the lack of required funds in accounts designated to pay the film's actors.

Yeah, that's a bit of a problem. As we noted Monday, all signs point to David Bergstein, the schmogul whose Capitol Films bought Think in 2006: Nikki Finke has another round of films affected by Capitol's cash drought, and Variety also notes squabbles with filmmaker Alex Gibney, who reportedly "threatened to take ThinkFilm into bankruptcy after the company failed to pay him his fees — including his Oscar bonus" after his Taxi to the Dark Side won this year's Best Documentary award. We've heard similar stories from the aftermaths of indies from Half Nelson to Off the Black to Murderball.

Additionally, around this time last month, we heard ThinkFilm was temporarily banned from holding press screenings at Chicago's Lake Street Screening Room when it fell five months behind on rental fees. (It has more debts in New York, where Think president Mark Urman recently complained to The Hollywood Reporter in an unrelated story,"It costs $700 to $800 to schedule a screening for one critic, and sometimes they don't make it.")

The Capitol deal was supposed to free ThinkFilm to acquire and push films more aggressively in the congested indie marketplace; we've seen hints and flashes, but the inconsistency can't be helping as they hit the market at Cannes. But at least Russell is back to work! A carefully timed, videotaped meltdown between him and Jake Gyllenhaal could be all Bergstein and Co. need to set the ship right.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Production resumes on 'Nailed' [Variety]

Rumors also are circulating that the state of South Carolina could withdraw its incentive monies because of the financing problems. Filmmakers hope to resolve the cash crunch and re-start shooting next week since principal photography is only at the halfway point. "I am confident we will finish," an insider on the pic just told me. "The financing on this like most indies is based on bank loans and bridge loans. This is a matter of waiting on the bridge loan. Hopefully, it will all be resolved."

But new information coming my way says David Bergstein's Capitol Films behind the pic is troubled. In 2006, he acquired a leading UK-based international sales company which over the years had built a good reputation in the movie biz and made a wide range of commercial and critical successes, including Robert Altman's Gosford Park. But now I'm hearing from NYC film financing circles that "a shitload of people are owed a lot of money," in the words of one expert in the field. "I heard this week that his major financing source, a hedge fund, has shut down and left him in the lurch."

This isn't the first of Bergstein's hedge-fund gambits to capsize at an inopportune time; last year's attempted buyout of Image Entertainment acrimoniously fell through a few months back when its primary funder fell under scrutiny from its investors. That and Nailed's problems may or may not be related, but Bergstein's money woes are also said to be trickling down to his American distribution subsidiary ThinkFilm, which, since the schmogul acquired the company in late 2006, have consistently flirted with having more titles in the pipeline than it can afford to release. (We hear they're in arrears with at least one NYC screening room, but they've also won two documentary Oscars in five years, so judge that progress for yourself.)

Anyway, Finke notes that the cast — including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessica Biel and Catherine Keener — are standing by, ready to work when shooting resumes, hopefully this week. We've seen flimsier houses of cards survive, but this might be one that's withstood all it can. Let us know if you have an eye on the weak spot.

• SAG Orders Actors On David O. Russell Film To Leave [DHD]

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A disheveled and confused Jessica Biel wandered around New York's LaGuardia Airport for hours after arriving on flight from South Carolina, where she has been working on the new David O. Russell film. Biel was heard to have mumbled her breath, "Not another take, David. Please not another take." Biel allegedly asked a flight attendant if she could do another take of her getting off the plane because she thought her director would've wanted more energy from her. Eventually, a personal assistant arrived and whisked Biel away to a hotel.

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

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While running through LAX yesterday, temperamental star Jake Gyllenhaal made a call to both his manager and agent to complain about the size of the airport. Gyllenhaal felt that the airport was too big and that more airports should have a downhome feel like John Wayne does. Gyllenhaal then complained that the security officer who helped the actor through the airport spent too much time asking him how his flight was and not enough fending off the paparazzi. Gyllenhaal then demanded that his agents set up a meeting with Diablo Cody, mainly because he wanted to see how long it would take for him to get her naked. Gyllenhaal then paused for a moment to catch his breath and, when he did, he finally came to his senses and fell directly to the floor. Once on the floor, Gyllenhaal rested in a fetal position and whispered into his phone: "I can't do work with David O. Russell anymore. I can't. I want Fincher back. I want to do take after take for ten hours straight."

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

But it's word of Gyllenhaal's continued lightweightedness on the South Carolina set that has us a little more concerned:

[I]t's hard to imagine someone this manly throwing a hissy-fit, but according to our source on the set of the movie Nailed, that's exactly what actor Jake Gyllenhaal did yesterday, causing the crew to shut down filming early and spend an additional day shooting at the South Carolina State House.

"He was complaining that the room was too small, complaining about the temperature, complaining about his chair," our source says. "It was like watching a two-year old have a meltdown every five minutes."

We would have thought that after Gyllenhaal's rigorous warm-up with David Fincher on Zodiac — over which his resilient co-star Mark Ruffalo famously commented "Fincher's going to eat you for breakfast" — would have been preparation enough for the Russell Marathon to come. But while we'll account for some level of gossipy exaggeration here, we really do hope an erstwhile Southern amateur can tape Russell leveling a "You're worse than fucking Lily!" accusation at his pouty leading man and the extraordinary headlock-and-slapfight skirmish sure to follow. We'd even pay money for footage of Russell chewing out his co-writer Kristin Gore (Al and Tipper's daughter) behind the scenes. This guy is loud; someone out there has to have heard something.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• David O. Russell Strikes Again! [Popwrap]
• Gyllenhaal Throws Hissy Fit [FITS]

· Tony Scott's remake of 1970s subway-hijacking classic The Taking of Pelham One Two Three gets more then just a digitized-title upgrade: it also gets James Gandolfini as the NYC mayor. Unfortunately, it also gets John Travolta. [Variety]
· Jon Heder and Dax Shepard Career Death-Rattle Watch: They both get one last wheeze playing Kristin Bell love interest in When In Rome. [Variety]

"He has his own unique bearing; you've got to know that going in," said "Smokin' Aces" director Joe Carnahan. "And he's not an apologist." [...]

"It's just hard to understand unless you're part of the club in a certain respect," said "I (Heart) Huckabees" cinematographer Peter Deming. "When people see this clip, particularly if you're not in the film business, they'd think, 'This guy's insane!' But he's not. Things happen when you're in this machine that's been rolling along for several months."[...]

Producer Greg Goodman, a longtime friend and producer on "Huckabees" and Russell's earlier film "Three Kings," said the clip was taken out of context.

"He's a very responsible filmmaker who wants to make sure we're coming in on budget," said Goodman. (And indeed, "Huckabees" came in on time and on budget.) "He is an individual. You embrace that."

It's ironic that at the precise moment Russell was demonstrating the maximum extent of his individuality, the flying desk implements and imminent choking threat made an actor/auteur embrace largely unfeasible. Still, if Tomlin was long ago able to make peace with her on-set adversary, shouldn't we all, and merely ratchet up the leaked footage to something akin to a front row surgical theater seat, offering us a rare and startling glimpse inside an open showbiz cavity, and the messy secrets of the filmmaking process within?

• Friends defend Russell as 'Huckabees' video gathers steam [LAT]

"It will do for Washington, D.C., what 'Talladega Nights' did for race car driving," Wick said. "We are going for a bold, subversive comedy, and David O. Russell is one of the most original voices working in comedy."

This could get good if Wick really believes that Talledega Nights constitutes "bold and subversive comedy," and that wasn't just a calculated comparison he made to make sure his project doesn't get quickly buried by a spooked Sony. But even if that kind of movie is actually what the studio expects to extract from a director who spent three years making a film about existential detectives, executives shouldn't be that surprised when they start seeing dailies in which an off-camera Russell can be heard screaming at a visibly exhausted Will Ferrell, "I don't care if we've been doing this scene for seven hours already.You will run around the Capitol building in your underwear as many fucking times as I tell you to, motherfucker. The studio wants you jogging in tighty-whiteys, that's exactly what they're fucking going to get."

• Russell going to D.C. for Gore's 'Hill' [THR]

To Radar and Defamer.com

In response to a story carried by your respective web sites, George Clooney has written the following to you:
———————-

Contrary to popular opinion. neither the sound man, Ed Tise, nor yours truly sent in the David O. Russell tape.

I saw it when we were working on "Ocean's 12," and there have been quite a few copies traveling around town for the last couple of years.

Any rumor that either of us put it on the internet is simply false.

And I'd offer a million bucks to anyone who would prove otherwise.

Your fan,

George Clooney

Backing up his claim with a generous financial offer for information linking him to the video's internet debut is a nice touch, though we're a little disappointed he didn't extend the idea a little further. CLOONEY PLACES MILLION DOLLAR BOUNTY ON HEAD OF REAL RUSSELL VIDEO LEAK would make for a much more compelling story than the simple, anticlimactic denial he and his trusty flack are offering.

• Theory: Was Prankster Clooney Behind The 'Huckabees' Clips? [Defamer]

Clooney's rep, Stan Rosenfield, insists the star had nothing to do with it. "The question is preposterous. He doesn't know how to put a video on YouTube. He barely knows how to e-mail."

But perhaps he had some help?

Clooney is currently at work on Leatherheads, a football comedy set in the 1920s that he's starring in and directing. Among the crew members listed on the film's IMDb page is sound mixer Edward Tise. The two last worked together on Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck, and, before that, on Three Kings.

He also served in the same capacity on—you guessed it—I Heart Huckabees. A message left for Tise at Leatherheads' production office hasn't been returned, but one Hollywood insider cautions that Clooney would have had a wide variety of accomplices to choose from: "When a director is like that, it makes the entire crew want to do things to him."

Even if the alleged soundman/Clooney tag-team leaked the clips, they probably won't ever admit to violating the pact of secrecy between tantrum-throwing, headlock-happy director and aggrieved cast and crew members. Hopefully, the knowledge that whoever's responsible gave the entire industry a solid week of pitch meeting and happy hour small talk taking the general form of, "Holy shit! How awesome was it when Russell comes back in and kicks that stuff off the desk!" will be satisfaction enough for our anonymous heroes.

• Huckabees Clip a Clooney Production? [Radar]